Using the Scheduler in Canvas to Setup Student Conferences or the Order of Presentations

When Megan Fisher and I presented at the SLATE Conference, two staff members from Sheboygan Falls School District inquired about a site visit to learn more about how Elmbrook is using Canvas. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to host several staff members from the Sheboygan Falls School District at Brookfield Central and Wisconsin Hills. (Thank you to Jamie Silver, Ellen Linnihan, Mike Mohammad, Elke Sommers, Suzanne Riesen, Shannon Maki, Megan Fisher, Erin Fike, Kathleen Evans, Amie Farley, Ann Archibald and Shane Radosevich for sharing your experiences with Canvas.)

During this site visit, I participated in several discussions around our use of Canvas and witnessed the great things that our teachers are doing. Canvas provides many tools to be more efficient but one overlooked tool in Canvas is the Scheduler. This tool allows you to create "appointment slots" where students can select a specific time for various purposes.

Jamie Silver, an English teacher at Brookfield Central, uses the Scheduler in Canvas to schedule student conferences for redo's and to provide time slots for students to select their presentation order:

To learn more about how to create an appointment group and to have your students sign up for a time slot, check out the following guides in the Canvas Community:

Add an appointment group in Scheduler (Teacher Perspective)

Sign-up for an appointment in Scheduler (Student Perspective)

Not only does this tool give students the opportunity to select times that work well in their schedule but it helps the teacher keep track of appointments or the order of presentations.

For more assistance with this tool, reach out to the Technology Coach or one of the Digital Leaders in your building.

Submitted by Joanie Rueth, Technology Coach/Teaching and Learning Coach at Brookfield Central and Brookfield East.

Learning "Selfies" as Formative Assessment

Last December, I attended a session called App Smashing, using multiple apps to create a digital product, at SLATE (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education). The super dynamic presenter introduced the group to the idea of using app smashing to have kids create various “Selfies” about their own learning.  For example, here is a "Math Selfie:"

Since the conference, I have used Learning Selfies every Reading and Writing unit. I ask students to create a Pic Collage including a selfie, the date, their reading/writing partner’s name or photo, their personal writing goal, and a photo of their own writing showing work towards their goal. Then, I have kids save the Pic Collage as a photo and share it on ClassDoJo Stories with a caption- this is then shared with me and families in their digital portfolio. It is also a great way for new partners to include themselves as readers or writers.

Here are some more examples:

I have my students primarily use the following apps: Pic Collage and Book Creator as a template, the camera app and screen capture to take a snapshot from any app, and then Class DoJo to share. 

This activity is highly engaging and a powerful tool in helping students take ownership of their learning. 

Submitted by Nicki Dahms, 2nd Grade teacher at Tonawanda Elementary